The Equalizer is a 2014 American
thriller film directed by
Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, based on the
television series of the same name. The film stars
Denzel Washington,
Marton Csokas,
Chloë Grace Moretz,
David Harbour,
Melissa Leo,
Haley Bennett, and
Bill Pullman.
Principal photography began in June 2013 on location and took place in different cities of
Massachusetts. This was the first film to have
Village Roadshow Pictures co-finance the deal with
Sony Pictures Entertainment since
Saving Silverman in 2001. The film was premiered at
2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2014, and released worldwide on September 26.
The plot
Robert McCall (
Denzel Washington) is a retired black ops government operative who lives in
Boston, Massachusetts
and works at a Home Mart hardware store, where he befriends many of his
co-workers and also tries to help a security guard trainee named
Ralphie pass his qualification exam. McCall has promised his recently
deceased wife that he'd leave his old life behind, but is compelled to
act after his teenage friend Teri (
Chloë Grace Moretz)
whose real name is Alina, was seen being mistreated by her pimp.
Alina's life was destroyed at the age of five or six when she was a
victim of sex trafficking by the Russian Mafia and then became their sex
slave and forced into prostitution.
Robert vows to save her after she is hospitalized after being brutally beaten by her pimp, Slavi (
David Meunier).
McCall enters a restaurant owned by the Russian mob and tries to
convince Slavi to release Alina by paying him $9800, but Slavi refuses.
McCall pretends to walk away, but turns back and takes out Slavi and his
men with their own weapons, removing the footage from all the security
cameras.
In retaliation, Vladimir Pushkin (
Vladimir Kulich) sends his enforcer Teddy (
Marton Csokas)
to Boston to find and eliminate the culprit. Meanwhile, Ralph withdraws
his application for being a security guard at Home Mart to help out his
mother at his family restaurant, which was set on fire by corrupt
policemen as an act of extortion. McCall confronts the corrupt policemen
and forces them to pay back all the money they have gotten through
extortion. Ralph passes his test and becomes a security guard at Home
Mart.
Teddy determines McCall is the culprit; surprised by his skills,
Teddy tries to capture him to use those skills instead of killing him.
McCall, however, outsmarts his pursuers and escapes, while completing
more acts of vigilantism. McCall visits fellow retired operatives Susan
Plummer (
Melissa Leo) and Brian Plummer (
Bill Pullman) in
Virginia,
who help him acquire intelligence on Pushkin's activities. It is
revealed that Teddy is ex-Spetnaz, and that his real name is Nikolai.
After McCall leaves, Susan remarks to Brian that McCall was not actually
looking for help, but was actually asking for permission.
McCall then captures Frank Masters (
David Harbour),
a corrupt Boston policeman who has been aiding Teddy, by trapping him
in his car and threatening to flood the vehicle with carbon monoxide.
Frank relents and helps McCall destroy one of Pushkin's money laundering
operations in Boston. Later, McCall confronts Teddy at dinner; McCall
pledges to bring Pushkin's empire down, and soon destroys a container
ship used by Pushkin to smuggle goods. Unsatisfied with Teddy's lack of
progress and his increasing monetary losses, Pushkin warns Teddy he can
either kill McCall or not come home to Moscow.
In retaliation, Teddy and his men attack Home Mart and take Ralph and
the workers of Home Mart hostage, threatening to kill them if he does
not surrender. McCall enters the store and disables most of the
lighting, tells Ralph to get the hostages to safety, and then kills
Teddy's henchmen one by one. After a struggle between McCall and one of
Teddy's men, Ralph comes back to help McCall, but is shot in the leg.
McCall tells Ralph to turn on the electricity after an exact time of 40
seconds. McCall sets up a number of chemicals in a microwave; the
electricity turns it on, causing an explosion that kills the last of
Teddy's men. McCall finally kills Teddy with a nail gun.
McCall then travels to
Moscow
and kills Pushkin's guards, and sets up an electrical trap to kill
Pushkin himself. McCall returns to Boston, where he reunites with Alina,
who has recovered from her wounds and thanks him for giving her a
second chance. McCall is inspired to continue using his skills to help
people in need and posts an online ad, identifying himself as "The
Equalizer". He soon receives another plea for help and agrees to answer
it.
